The New Normal

Chapter Seven

The next day, I leaned against my locker, waiting for Ariel to arrive. Although, I didn't have to wait long because almost a second later I saw a flash of long blonde hair run down the hall and land right in front of me.

"It's Friday," she stated, breathing heavily seeing as she just sprinted, something she would never usually do unless there was money involved.

I cocked an eyebrow and I nodded my head slowly. "Yes, yes it is."

"Sleepover?" My best friend grinned.

I smiled back and nodded my head vigorously. I've missed my sleepovers with Ariel. They could get pretty wild, especially if Chad was having Tristan over too. Double Trouble never failed to get in, well, trouble. "Of course! But on one condition."

"Anything."

"It better be epic," I squealed. "I have messed up stuff going on right now and I need something to get my mind off of it."

Ariel nodded her head in understanding, her blonde hair bouncing as she did so. "Obviously," she paused for a moment. "Tonight will be epic."

The bell signaled the end of the school day and Ariel was immediately at my side. "So, I was thinking."

"Uh-oh."

My best friend rolled her eyes. "Tyler and his friends are having a party at his place."

I closed my locker and arched my brow. "So?"

"So," she began, "We are crashing it."

We began walking to the parking lot and I fanned my hair out of my face. "Why, to make him mad?"

Ariel shot me a mischievous grin. "Even better, we're going to cut the power and then everyone will be scrabbling around like idiots."

I laughed at this, of course Ariel didn't want to actually go to the party, she wanted to ruin it.

Tonight was going to be something.

"Flashlight?" I asked, going over our checklist that was written in my iPhone.

"Check." Ariel responded.

"Binoculars?"

"Check."

"Car keys?"

"Check!" My best friend answered cheerily.

She was really serious about this mission. We even went to the extent of wearing all black attire so Tyler and the party goers wouldn't see us outside. Personally, I thought the outfits were the best part. We both wore skin-tight black leggings and black long sleeved with a v-neckline. The only unfortunate part of my outfit was my shoes. Ariel had nice, black runners, whereas I don't own any black shoes that were suitable for running but Ariel insisted I wear all black so I was stuck wearing my knee high heeled boots.

Ariel carried her drawstring bag to the car and honked the horn for me to get in. It didn't take long for us to get to Tyler's and it was obvious it was going to be a bit of a challenge to get into the backyard unnoticed. There was so many people on the front lawn and throughout the house, I had no idea how we were going to manage this.

Ariel was scoping the place out with her binoculars. We were parked at the end of the street, where I typically run my trail and we had our seats set backwards so we wouldn't be seen past the dash. We stayed in the car for two hours, waiting for the party to reach its peak. Ariel thought it would be best to do it later rather than sooner because then most people would be too drunk to pay attention to anyone in the backyard - if they could even see us in the black of night.

We watched as people were dancing in the living room and well, everywhere in the house. Tyler was in his kitchen playing beer-pong with Chad and some blonde girl was clinging onto his shoulder. He got the ball into a cup and everyone started to cheer, the blonde squealed in delight and started attacking his face with hers. Ariel jolted up and threw her binoculars in the backseat. "Let's go, let's go! He's macking on that slut Leslie Freeman, now's our time!"

We quickly flew out of the car, not even bothering to shut the doors and we ran to the side of his house where his backyard gate stood tall. I turned to Ariel and gave her an unsure look. "The lock is on the other side, how do we get in?"

Without missing a beat, Ari went on all fours. "Stand on my back and climb."

I hesitantly stood on her back, careful not to apply my whole weight or else my heel would dig into her spine. I swung my leg over the gate, but I did it way too fast because my whole body flew over it and I plummeted onto the cement path. "Son of a bitch!" I hissed as I rubbed my knee and then my elbow, not sure which one hurt most.

"J, are you good?" Ari whispered from the other side of the gate.

"Just freakin' peachy," I muttered through my teeth and stood up slowly and eventually unlocking the gate.

Ariel gave me a pat on the shoulder and we both crept through the backyard and to the breaker. I flicked on the small flashlight and open the breaker box and inspected the insides. We hadn't thought this far ahead. I turned to Ariel. "What do we do now?"

She shrugged and started flipping a bunch of switches until finally, the house went pitch black and the music faltered. We heard people start to swear in confusion, wondering what was happening.

Ariel high-fived one another and started to make our way out of the backyard. We got to the gate when we heard Tyler storm out the backdoor and inspect the breaker. "Who the hell messed with my breaker?"

Ariel and I tried to leave out the gate but it was old and noisy and we were terrified he'd hear us leave. But we had no choice because we heard his footsteps approach but we couldn't see him as he was still in the main part of the backyard, not yet in view of the side of the house. He started to yell. "I know you assholes are still here! So come out and maybe I won't kill you."

Ariel gestured for us to run on the count of three. The footsteps got closer and Ariel said, "THREE!"

We ran like hell and we heard Tyler's footsteps trying to follow us, but he couldn't catch up completely due to our head start, although he was quickly at our heels. Luckily, we got in the car in time before he could stop us. Ariel started the car and sped off, but we could hear Tyler screaming, "I WARNED YOU!"

Ariel and I sat in the car on her driveway and breathed heavily. "Man, that was a rush."

I nodded my head and moved my hair out of my face. "For sure," I caught my breath and continued, "What did he mean, 'I warned you'?"

Ariel sighed and clenched the steering wheel. "You know Tyler, he's a drama queen."

"He seemed pretty mad..." I pondered to myself.

My best friend smacked the wheel with her hands. "Can you just forget it? Tyler is a dick and we got back at him, that's all that matters."

"Hey," I said gently, "I didn't mean to stress you out, I was just curious about what he meant."

Ariel unbuckled her seat-belt. "Just drop it!"

She got out of the car and slammed the door and I sat there in a stunned silence, wondering what the heck just happened.